Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-08-18
THE KENTUCKY ELECTION

A Louisville correspondent of the
New York Evening Post. makes care
full. intelligent, and highly interesting
analysis of the result of the recent Ken
lucky election.
1t is shown that
Q.) The Demscratic plurality, which before
1884 had been much larger, but then came down
to "a ,S39 tor Cleveland ever Blaine, upon a
heavier vote than had been cast in the state
before, has now come down to $1,000 for Buck
ner over Bradley. (2.) The vote this year is
much heavier than it was in the Presidential
elections, about 290, 600 now to 275,000 then.
81 The loss in the Democratic majority is
due but to slight extent to the Temperance
and Labor candidates, for the increase in their
following over st. John and Butler is hardly
more than 5000 and fully one-third of it is
drawn from the Republican side. a. The
dwindling of the Democratic plurality to less
than one-half, its diminution by $4,000, can
not be ascribed to over-confdence or to the ac-
cidental staying at home of good Democrats,
for the returns in detail show that a great many
counties changed from the Democratic to the
Republican column, with corresponding gain
of Representatives in the General Assembly, or
tions. (2) 1t could not be accidental, as for
weeks and months before the election bets were
freely made on the smallness of Buckner's ma
jority. (6.) The gain among the white voters
is even larger than that shown by the general
result; for in counties like Fayette Uexing-
tom, where the Republicans are mainly blacks,
their party lost, while in the mountain coun-
ties, in which there are no blacks at all, the
Republican gains are enormous. a. The
Republican gains were paid for, because, the
Federal offices being now in hostile hands, there
was no one to make up campaign fund.
Eighteen thousand loss in a state of eleven
congressional districts gives an average of ,636
to each district, though of course unequallv dis
tributed. A change OF that size in two yehrs
and nine mouths, indicated and poepared by
gains nearly as far reaching in November last,
means something. A similar change applied
elsewhere would have transferred New York,
Connecticut, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia,
West Virginia. and Tennessee from the Cleye-
land to the Blaine side.
Being on the spot, and being, as free-trade
Mugwump, outside of the contending PARTIES
did not vote for either Buckner or Bradley
can give you the causes at work.
As | stated before, the race issue is being
forgotten as we recede from the times of the
war and of emancipation. Though nearly all
our colorsd men still stick to the party that
gave them liberty, the whites have to a great
extent ceased to look upon the Democracy as
the white mans party. They begin to take in
terest in pending Federal questions. Whatever
the Courier-Journal may say to the contrary,
the tariff issue played greater part tn the dis
cussions this year than ever before and many
more protectionists, who had called themselves
70 hot tho
wrong side I; that they affiliated with a crowd in
which they did not properly belong. But the
Blair educational bill had a much greater effect
than the tariff; Buckner opposed, Bradley ad-
vocated it, Hence, his enormous majorities in
the mountain and billy counties in which illit-
eracy abounds, and the people are too poor to
paw heavy school taxes. The returns from
Leslie, Jackson, Whitney, Laurel, Knox, Har
Ian, Rowan, &C., look as if they came from so
many Vermont towns. Moreover, these noun
tains and hills are full of Union veterans, who
resented the veto of the dependent pension bill,
which the Democratic speaKers-mainly ex-
rebels-fully justified. Here you have those
causes of this change which rest on Federal
questions, to which may be added that all the
mere anti-Blaine mugwumps returned to their
old Republican allegiance.
There are two local causes in addition. The
Democratic candidate, Simon Bolivar Buckner,
was one of the few original secessionists Of
Kentucky. Being before the war in command
of the State militia, he exerted such influence
over them that at its outbreak nearly all of
them went South In Union families his
name, until his late nomination for Governor,
was remembered in that connection, and in
that connection only, for he had since the war
taken no part in public affairs. Very few ex
Union soldiers voted for him. The other To-
cal cause was this: While former Republican
candidates talked only Of national issues, Mr..
Bradley boldly assailed the Democrats for
their management of State affairs; going into !
particulars and using as the chief weapon the
late great increase of State taxation, brought |
about not by higher rate, but by fuller as
sessment People who look upon customs as
a blessing, because the payment is made by
the importer at New York, are very sensitive |
about direct taxes which they have to pay on
their farms or town lots. The extravaganza of
the Democratic State Government is felt; the !
much greater extravaganza at Washington ap- |
pears emily as praiseworthy effort to get rid of
the surplus.
Here you have the Kentucky facts; draw
from them what moral you wish.